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REMARKS 

OP 

MR. HAMLIN, OF MAINE, 

ON 

RESIGNING HIS POSITION AS CHAIRMAN OF 
THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, 

AND 

THE TESTS OF THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION. 



In the Senate of the United States, June 12, 1856. 



The Senate having come to order — 

Mr. HAMLIN said : Mr. President, I rise for a 
purpose purely personal, such as I have never before 
risen for in the Senate. I desire to explain some 
matters personal to myself and to my own future 
course in public life. 

Several Senators. Go on. 

Mr. HAMLIN. I ask the Senate to excuse me from 
further service as chairman of the Committee on Com- 
merce. I do so, because I feel that my relations here- 
after will be of such a character as to render it proper 
that I should no longer hold that position. I owe 
this act to the dominant majority in the Senate. 
When I cease to harmonize with the majority, or 
tests are applied by that party with which I have 
acted to which I cannot submit, I feel that I ought 
no longer to hold that responsible position. I pro- 
pose to state briefly the reasons which have brought 
me to that conclusion. 

During nine years of service in the Senate, I have 
preferred rather to be a working than a talking mem- 
ber, and so I have been almost a silent one. On the 






^Vc\ 



subjects which have so much agitated the country, 
Senators know that I have rarely uttered a word. [ 
love my country more than I love my party. I love 
my country above my love for any interest that can 
too deeply agitate or disturb its harmony. I saw, in 
all the exciting scenes and debates through which we 
have passed, no particular good that would result 
from my active intermingling in them. My heart has 
often been full, and the impulses of that heart have 
often been felt upon my lips, but I have repressed 
them there. 

Sir, I hold that the repeal of the Missouri compro- 
mise was a gross moral and political wrong, unequal- 
led in the annals of the legislation of this country, 
and hardly equalled in the annals of any other free 
country. Still, sir, with a desire to promote harmony 
and concord and brotherly feeling. I was a quiet man 
under all the exciting debates which led to that fatal 
result. I believed it wrong then; I can see that 
wrong lying broadcast all around us now. As a wrong 
I opposed that measure — not indeed by my voice, but 
With consistent and steady and uniform votes. 1 so 
resisted it in obedience to the dictates of my own 
judgment. I did it also cheerfully, in compliance 
with the instructions of the Legislature of Maine, 
which were passed by a vote almost unanimous. In 
the House of Representatives of Maine, consisting of 
one hundred and fifty-one members, only six, I think, 
dissented ; and in the Senate, consisting of thirty-one 
members, only one member non-concurred. 

But the Missouri restriction was abrogated. The 
portentous evils that were predicted have followed, 
and are yet following, along in its train. It was done, 
sir, in violation of the pledges of that party with 
which I have always acted, and with which I have 
always voted. It was done in violation of solemn 
pledges of the President of the United States, made 
in his inaugural address. Still, sir, I was disposed to 
suffer the wrong, until I should see that no evil re- 



suits were flowing from it. We were told by almost 
every Senator who addressed us upon that occasion, 
that no evil results would follow ; that no practical 
difference in the settlement of the country, and the 
character of the future State, would take place, 
whether the act were done or not. I have waited 
calmly and patiently to see the fulfilment of that pre- 
diction ; and I am grieved, sir, to say now, that they 
have at least been mistaken in their predictions and 
promises. They all have signally failed. 

That. Senators might have voted for that measure 
under the belief then expressed, and the predictions 
to which 1 have alluded. I can well understand ; but 
how Senators can now defend that measure amid all 
its evils, which are overwhelming the land, if not 
threatening it with a conflagration, is what I do not 
comprehend. The whole of the disturbed state of 
the country has its rise in, and is attributable to, that 
act alone— nothing else. It lies at the foundation of 
all our misfortunes and commotions. There would 
have been no incursions by Missouri borderers into 
Kansas, either to establish slavery or control elec- 
tions. There would have been no necessity either for 
others to have gone there partially to aid in preserv- 
ing the country in its then condition. All would have 
been peace there. Had it not been done, that re- 
pose and quiet which pervaded the public mind then, 
would hold it in tranq nillity to-day. Instead of start- 
ling events, we should have quiet and peace within 
our borders, and that fraternal feeling which ought 
to animate the citizens of every part of the Union 
toward those of all other sections. 

Sir, the events that are taking place around us are 
indeed startling. They challenge the public mind, 
and appeal to the pubfic judgment ; they thrill the 
public nerve as electricity imparts a tremulous mo- 
tion to the telegraphic wire. It is a period when all 
good men should unite in applying the proper remedy 
to secure peace and harmony to the country. Is this 



4 

to be done by any of us, by remaining associated 
with those who have been instrumental in producing 
these results, and who now justify them? I do not 
see my duty lying in that direction. 

I have, while temporarily acquiescing, stated here 
and at home, everywhere, uniformly, that when the 
tests of those measures were applied to me as one of 
party fidelity, I would sunder them as flax is sun- 
dered at the touch of fire. I do it now. 

The occasion involves a question of moral duty ; 
and self-respect allows me no other line of duty but 
to follow the dictates of my own judgment and the 
impulses of my own heart. A just man may cheer- 
fully submit to many enforced humiliations ; but a 
self-degraded man has ceased to be worthy to be 
deemed a man at all. 

Sir, what has the recent Democratic Convention 
at Cincinnati done ? It has endorsed the measure I 
have condemned, and has sanctioned its destructive 
and ruinous effects. It has done more — vastly more. 
That principle or policy of territorial sovereignty 
which once had, and which I suppose now has, its 
advocates within these walls, is stricken down • and 
there is an absolute denial of it in the resolution of 
the Convention — if I can draw right conclusions — a 
denial equally to Congress, and even to the people of 
the Territories, of the right to settle the question of 
slavey therein. On the contrary, the Convention 
has actually incorporated into the platform of the 
Democratic party that doctrine which, only a few 
years ago, met nothing but ridicule and contempt, 
here and elsewhere — namely : that the flag of the 
Federal Union, under the Constitution of the United 
States, carries sUvery wherever it floats. If this 
baleful principle be true, then that' national ode 
which inspires as always as on a battle-field, 
should be rewritten by Drake, and should read 
thus : 



5 

W Forever float that standard sheet; 

Where breathes the foe but talis before u.s, 
With Slavery's soil beneath our feet, 

And Slavery's banner streaming o'er us." 

Kow, sir, what is the precise condition in which 
this matter is left by the Cincinnati Convention ? I 
do not design to trespass many moments on the Sen- 
ate ; but allow me to read and oiler a very few com- 
ments upon some portions of the Democratic platform. 
The first resolution that treats upon the subject is in 
these words— I read just so much of it as is applica- 
ble to my present remarks : 

" That Congress has no power under the Constitu- 
' tion to interfere with or control the domestic insti- 
' tutions of the several States ; and that all such 
' States are the sole and proper judges of everything 
' appertaining to their own affairs not prohibited by 
' the Constitution." 

I take it that this language, thus far, is language 
which meets a willing and ready response from every 
Senator here— certainly it does from me. But in the 
following resolution I find these words : 

"Resolved, That the foregoing proposition covers 
' and was intended to embrace," the whole subject of 
' slavery agitation in Congress." 

The first resolution which I read was adopted years 
ago in Democratic Conventions. The second resolu- 
tion which I read was adopted in subsequent years, 
when a different state of things had arisen, and it be- 
came necessary to apply an abstract proposition re- 
lating to the States to the Territories. Hence the 
adoption of the language contained in the second 
resolution which I have read, 

Now, sir, I deny the position thus assumed by the 
Cincinnati Convention. In the language of the Sen- 
ator from Kentucky, [Mr. Crittenden,] so ably and 
so appropriately used, on Tuesday last, I hold that 
the entire and unqualified sovereignty of the Terri- 
tories is in Congress. That is my judgment ; but 



6 

this resolution brings the Territories precisely within 
the same limitations which are applied to the States 
in the resolution which I first read. The two taken 
together deny to Congress any power of legislation 
m the Territories. 

Follow on, and let us see what remains. Adopted 
as a part of the present platform, and as necessary 
to a new state of things, and to meet an emergency 
H&W existing, the Convention says : 

" The American Democracy recognise and adopt 
' the principles contained in the organic laws estab- 
1 hshmg the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, as 

• embodying the only sound and safe solution of the 
< slavery question, upon which the great national idea 

* ol the people of this whole country can repose, in 
' its determined conservatism of the Union— -non-in- 
' terference by Congress with slavery in States and 
' Territories." 

Then follows the last resolution. 
11 Resolved^ That we recognise the right of the peo- 
' pie of all the Territories, including Kansas and Ne- 
braska, acting through the fairly-expressed will of 
' the majority of actual residents,* and whenever the 
' number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a 
' Constitution, with or without domestic slavery \ and 
' be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect 
1 equality with the other States." 

Take all these resolutions together, and the de- 
duction which we must necessarily draw from them 
is a denial to Congress of any power whatever to 
egislate upon the subject of slavery. The last reso- 
lution denies to the people of the Territory any 
power over the subject, save when they shall have a 
sufficient number to form a Constitution and become 
a State, and also denies that Congress has any power 
over the subject; and so the resolutions hold that 
tliis power is at least in abeyance while the Territory 
is m a territorial condition. That is the only con- 
clusion which you can draw from these resolutions 



Alas! for short-lived territorial sovereignty. It came 
1o its death in the house oi' its friends -it was buried 
by (he salme hands which had given it baptism] 

But, sir, I did not rise for the purpose of discuss- 
ing these resolutions, but only to read them, and 
stale the action which I propose to take in view of 
them. I may— 1 probably shall— take some subse- 
quent occasion, when I shall endeavor to present to 
the Senate and the country a fair account of what is 
the true issue presented to the people for their con- 
sideration and decision* 

( My object now is to show only that the Cincinnati 
Convention has endorsed and approved of the repeal 
of the Missouri compromise, from which so many 
evils have already flowed — from which, I fear, more 
and worse evils must yet be anticipated. It would, 
of course, be expected that the Presidential nominee 
of that Convention would accept, cordially and cheer- 
fully, the platform prepared for him by his party 
friends. No person can object to that. There is no 
equivocation on his part about the matter. I beg 
leave to read a short extract from a speech of that- 
gentleman, made at his own home, within the last 
few days. In reply to the Keystone Club, which 
paid him a visit there, Mr. Buchanan said : 

"Gentlemen, two weeks since I should have made 
1 you a longer speech, but now I have been placed 
' on a platform of which I most heartily approve, and 
' that can speak for me. Being the representative 
' of the great Democratic party, and not simply 
' James Buchanan, I must square my conduct ac- 
1 cording to the platform of the party, and insert no 
' new plank, nor take one from it." 

These events leave to me only one unpleasant duty, 
which is to declare here that I can maintain political 
associations with no party that insists upon such doc- 
trines ; that I can support no man for President who 
avows and recognises them; and that the little of 






8 

that power with which God has endowed me shall be 
employed to battle manfully, firmly, and consistently, 
for his defeat, demanded as it is by the highest in- 
terests of the country which owns all my allegiance. 



s. 



BUELL & BLANCHARD, Printers, Washington, D. C. 



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